ii6 NATURE AND THE CAMERA 



ment. The same may be said of leaves when cer- 

 tain plants are under consideration. In this way the 

 picture is a complete portrait of the plant, showing 

 everything except the roots and seed-pods; and as 

 these latter are so very seldom to be found on the 

 plant while it is in bloom, they have to be photo- 

 graphed separately. With low plants whose flowers 

 are near the ground, such as trailing arbutus, it is al- 

 most always necessary to accentuate the fact by placing 

 a chestnut bur or an acorn, or some such object which 

 would naturally be found on the ground, somewhere 

 near the flower. This makes the fact that the flower 

 is near or on the ground patent to anybody who sees 

 the picture; otherwise they might think the flower 

 was growing on a wall or even on a bush. Another 

 good plan is to show a flower of another species 

 growing near the one you are photographing, making 

 it, of course, incidental and therefore less conspicu- 

 ous. Its object is to show the season when these 

 two plants are in flower. This, though by no means 

 necessary, is frequently of interest. 



Still another interesting idea is to photograph the 

 plant at diflFerent times from the same point of view, 

 showing its gradual development, being careful to keep 

 notes of the dates. Pictures of this description taken in 

 series are both interesting and instructive as illustrating, 

 in the case of the wild flowers, how rapidly they come 

 and go. It seems.no time between the bursting of the 



